History of the Hot Wheels Blisterpacks
More to come The Blisterpack What is a blisterpack? It is the package in which Hot Wheels are sold. Cardboard backing with art work and a clear cellophane bubble glued to the cardboard. The Hot Wheel is displayed in the bubble. The History of the Blisterpack Otto Kuhni was the designer of the art work on most early blisterpacks. Up until 1989 blisterpacks may be hard to date, Mattel did not have names on cards in the beginning, just the collector button. In 1973 they started putting names on the blisterpacks, but that turned out not to be completely reliable, nor was the year dated on the cards. Starting in 1974, it seems they would run a batch of cards and they might have been over produced. It seems the back of the card were made, then the front was later applied to meet the needs of that casting. This really is noticeable starting in 1976 & 1977. This is why the "collector numbers" of the '70's are useless. Multiple cars would have the same collector number or would be listed wrong on the back check list. I have found 1983 cars on 1979 cards. This guide is to help understand some of the changes over the years. '1968' The First US market Blisterpack was released in '68 It is referred to as the "Cheetah Blisterpack". No there is not a cheetah on it but on the back it list's the "Python" as the "Cheetah". The Python was released with the name "cheetah" but it quickly changed to the Python. The back did change to the production name "Python". This is the second Blisterpack The circle logo under the Hot Wheels logo has Mattey mattel waving from a large "M" and has "Mattel Inc" above Mattey. The other is known as a "Rosebud", due to the emblem used at the circle portion of Hot Wheels logo. It is a trademark emblem with "Rosebud Mattel toymakers" This was a doll manufacturer in England that Mattel purchased. These cards were only sold in the UK, the cardboard quality varied. Almost all Rosebud cards with have a HK car. '1969' 1969 was the first year series cards were seen. The Grand Prix series. The Circle under the hot wheels logo was changed to "Mattel", there still is some Rosebud blisters in this year also. '1970' '1971' '1972' '1973' '1974 and 1975' This blister was a new concept designed to show off those new Flying Colors with cars flying off the card, to me I had hoped.Some of my research in this area, Porsche 917 changes name in 1975 to P-917. Blister follows this timeline with the Porsche on the card at the end of the white loses the name altogether. Also, the advertising (dealer catalog) showed "Flying Colors in blue." There is the chance that the '74 red and blue logos ran together. Note the card size changed during 1975 to the modern (shorter) size. The Canadian cards of this era did not contain the Baja Bruiser, it was removed to allow bi-lingual text. These are uncommon. '1976' '1977' '1978' '1979' '1980' '1981' The introduction of "The Hot Ones", introduced a new wheel never seen before and a thinner axle. The Heroes series was continued. '1982' '1983' '1984' The Hot Ones were replaced by a new faster breed, Ultra Hots. '1985' '1986' '1987' '1988' '1989' Notes: A very short run of what is now known as experimental cards was released. At the time we knew the cards were changing, but because the experimental cards and all blue cards were out at the same time, it was unknown which would stay. They both started the collector # again. But this time they stuck to making them mean something. unlike in the '70's releases. This was the beginning of blisterpacks being made for only 1 year, thus being able to date the car with the date on the blister. '1990' '1991' '1992' '1993' '1994' '1995' Notes: This was the first year treasure hunts were introduced. Only one of two years that production numbers were known. The release was to be one per month throughout the year. This did happen in spurts, they were randomly inserted in cases, never to be more than one per case though. It was almost like Hot Wheels Lotto. '1996' '1997' '1998' '1999' '2000' '2001' '2002' '2003' '2004' '2005' '2006' '2007' '2008' '2009' '2010' '2011' '2012' '2013' 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Category:History Category:2014